Foul Deeds in Richmond and Kingston Page 13

  There are two intriguing footnotes to this terrible story. The first is that on 15 December, Dancy telephoned Dorothy L Sayers (1893–1957), perhaps the most literary of the female crime writers of the Golden Age of detective fiction and well known for her fictional sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. It was a lengthy call. Part of it went as follows:

  ‘I thought you might like to come and see the place … it’s quite a problem.’

  ‘I’m afraid detective writers are rather stupid about problems in real life.’

  ‘Oh, there’s nothing to solve… But I thought you would be interested in hearing all the details.’

  The author said that she was not well acquainted with the crime and that, though she occasionally spoke to members of the CID, they told her little about her cases. In the end she declined Dancy’s offer (he suggested the two could meet after Christmas), pleading a prior engagement, and informed the police of the conversation. It does not seem that this offer was ever taken up, ‘his offer seemed quite unnatural and inexplicable’ thought the police.

  Then there were at least two anonymous letters received by the police about the murder, both making a similar accusation. One read, ‘I feel deeply that much has yet to be discovered’. It was alleged that this was not a simple case of murder, attempted murder and then suicide. Some thought that the murder was like something out of a book, and pointed to suspicious incidents. These were the finding of the nude photographs, the theatricality of Dancy’s story about ‘foxing’ Tribe, the time lapse between Dancy’s finding his wife dead and ringing for the police, the odd fact that he had picked up the razor from Tribe’s hand before replacing it, and the fact that a new insurance policy, insuring his wife for £5,000 was taken out just before she died. A writer of detective stories or a conspiracy theorist could point to the fact that we have only Dancy’s word that Tribe shot at him then killed himself, and that he could have killed his wife and then his unwell brother in law, in order to acquire the insurance money – perhaps, too he was envious of his brother in law’s MC and his wife’s successful career. Detective Inspector Howell made the following balanced assessment, ‘There are many peculiarities and little suspicious incidents surrounding the case, but all the same, I think the verdict was the correct one.’

  Queen’s Road, Richmond, 2009. The Author

  Richmond Police Station, 2009. The Author

  As a further footnote to the case, Dr John Dancy inherited £2,166 14s from his wife. He remained living at his house in Queen’s Road until 1966, then retiring to Bournemouth. He never remarried and died on 8 December 1976, leaving £19,762 in his will.

  CHAPTER 17

  A Jeweller’s Demise

  1938

  After a little while I managed to get the knife. At that time I think we were both quite mad.

  Ernest Perceval Key was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1872 and was the son of a Methodist minister and hosier and hatter, John Key, who was also born there. Ernest, who had at least three siblings, was apprenticed to a jeweller and a watchmaker. In 1901, he was an assistant jeweller, working in South Shields. In this year (on 8 January 1901 to be exact) he married Miss Rachel Maud Taylor of that town, whose father, Captain Jack Taylor, was a master mariner. They had at least three children (Gertrude, born in 1907, Jack, born in 1908 and Mormie, born in the following year). The family moved around various towns in Yorkshire, Key later managing jewellery shops in London. With the outbreak of war in 1914, Key, who was a crack shot, having competed at Bisley, taught musketry to volunteers in Sheffield. The family moved to Surbiton in 1916.

  Key had many interests. He was a keen bowler and snooker player, and was a member of the St Mark’s Men’s Club and the Constitutional Club, too. He was a freemason, being a member of the Surbiton Lodge, where he had once been president, and also attended the Ditton Chapter. Spiritualism was another of his concerns, and most of the family were spiritualists, being members of the Surbiton Spiritualist Church and the equivalent in Tolworth. He was sober and moderate, respected and had not an enemy in the world.

  At first the family lived above the jewellery shop in Victoria Road, Surbiton, where Key repaired watches and sold jewellery, but by 1933 they lived in Ewell Road. Key seems to have been a respected member of the community, but that did not prevent him from being safe from burglars. In March 1937, he lost goods to the value of about £300, a heavy loss indeed. This was all the more so because he could not get insurance. From that time on, he took his most valuable items home each night, a friend acting as bodyguard when returning home. By 1938 he was by no means a wealthy man, with his total estate being worth £185 16s.

  Victoria Road, Surbiton. Author’s collection

  On 24 December 1938, Key left home, at about 9.15–9.30am, a little later than usual, on his way to work. It was a cold and wintry day. At about 10.30am, he went to Alice Cooper’s newsagent’s shop, which was next to his. He rang Gertrude, his unmarried daughter. She later recalled that he said, ‘I have rung up to tell you it is terribly slippery outside, in fact it is like glass … I slipped under a trolley bus but it was standing still. I’m alright.’ He also warned Gertrude to tell her mother to be careful if she went outside. But Mrs Key became worried about her husband. Since 1930 he had suffered a stroke and two heart attacks. Soon afterwards, Key’s son, Jack, was asked to go and see how his father was.

  Jack Key was thirty years old in 1938. He had had a career in the music halls as a juvenile lead in comedy roles. However, an injury had finished his stage career and by 1938 he was running a mineral water business. Unfortunately it was not doing well, and only made him about £2 per week, so he sometimes assisted his father in the shop, especially during busy times after 3 pm.

  Therefore, at about 11.30am he went to the shop. He was surprised to find that it was locked, so he went home to fetch a key. Ten minutes later, he inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. He later recalled the following:

  I opened the front door of the shop with a key, went through the shop to a room at the rear which is used as a workshop. I saw my father lying on his back on the floor. His head was towards me. There was a quantity of blood on the floor. His face, hands and his clothing were covered in blood. I unfastened his collar and tie and put my hand on his chest to try and feel if his heart was beating. I then went outside and telephoned for an ambulance.

  Edith Smith, a nurse, was passing by and tried to assist. Although they had him taken to Kingston County Hospital, he died before reaching it. The time was about midday. Curiously enough, that was about the same time that another man arrived at the same hospital, having caught a taxi from Kingston railway station. Oddly enough, he was seen by the same man, who obviously had been assigned to deal with emergencies that day – Dr Louis Naz. This man gave his name as Charles Jackson, with a Norbiton address. He explained that the injures to his right hand were caused by a wood cutting machine. These took two hours to be dressed. At least they were not as bad as Key’s fatal wounds. These were later described thus, ‘There were something like thirty-one vicious stab wounds about the head, face and neck and sixteen or seventeen cuts on the hands. All must have been caused by a type of dagger or knife without a guard, so that the hand when delivering the blows might be cut.’ Dr Gardner and Spilsbury conducted the postmortem on 26 December.

  Meanwhile, the scene of the crime was examined. There was a bloodstained bowler hat. It was size 7 and did not belong to the deceased man. Several items were missing. These included a gold watch and chain, a baby’s silver rattle and a pair of Key’s gloves. Key had left home that morning with between fifteen and twenty £1 notes. These were also missing. However, no fingerprints, except Key’s, could be found.

  The police visited laundries and dyers and asked if anyone had handed in any bloody clothes. They asked for anyone finding knives to inform them. Three youths found a bloodstained knife and handed it in. People as far afield as Nottingham and Leeds reported seeing suspicious characters.

  Several witnesses helpe
d the police reconstruct Key’s last hours. Frank Armitage, an engineer, had been to the shop at 10.40am to buy a watch, but rang the bell and no one arrived. He left, but not before he had heard voices from within, and the message, ‘Call back later, you will please.’ Ten minutes later, Richard Whittaker, a teacher and a friend of Keys, saw Key talking to a woman. This was Ada Archer, who was placing an order for earrings at 10.45-10.50am. Major Louis Weigall passed the shop just before 11 and saw Keys there. However, when Joseph Bone, a bank messenger, passed the shop at 11.25am, he found it was shut.

  The man initially suspected was Jack Key, by his ‘manner and demeanour’, but what these were, the police file does not elaborate. Perhaps it was because he had discovered the body and because he was short of money. Yet he was rapidly discounted.

  Others came forward with useful information about the man the police wanted to speak to. On 28 December, Bertram Patient, manager of a pawnbrokers on Kew Road, Richmond, recalled refusing to accept a gold watch for pawn on the evening of 24 December, and described the man in question. Robert Woodhams of Twickenham had also seen a man with a bloodstained overcoat on that day and told the police at Twickenham police station. Another witness was thirteen-year-old Dorothy Harris who recalled seeing a man with injured hands in Middle Lane, Teddington, at 4.30 pm on the day of the murder, who asked her to count a wad of £1 notes.

  The description of the man was circulated in the press and on the BBC on 29 December. A man who fitted the description had bought a doll’s pram for £1 12s 6d from a shop on Hampton Hill, at 8.45 pm on Christmas Eve. Other shopkeepers came forward with similar stories.

  It was DC Maudsley who recognised the wanted man as a neighbour of his. This was William Thomas Butler, who had been born on 27 January 1910. Until he was nineteen he lived with his mother. He had attended St Mark’s School, Tolworth, leaving on 17 November 1919, then going to the council school on Stanley Road in Teddington, which he left on 10 February 1922. For the next few years, he worked for his uncle Albert, a greengrocer, of North Road, Teddington. Yet his criminal tendencies emerged in 1927 when he was bound over at the county Quarter Sessions for housebreaking and receiving stolen goods.

  This did not prevent his getting married to Eveline Muriel Cook in January 1929, whilst not yet twenty. The marriage led to two daughters, Patricia aged five and Jane, aged eight, by 1938. His employment career was unsteady in the 1930s. Mr Wood, a grocer, of Walton Road, east Moseley, employed him as an assistant from 1935 – July 1936. Mr Boxall employed him from February – July 1937 in Worcester Park, in a similar position. Then he worked as a grocer’s assistant and chauffeur to Mr Stewart, a greengrocer of Fulham, from August 1937–February 1938. Butler was not such a bad worker, it being said of him, ‘Butler left all these places of his own accord and though described as normal and fairly satisfactory, he seems to have been rather restless.’

  Yet he was now unemployed. The family now lived at Laurel Road, Hampton Hill and because his wife was obliged to go out to work, he felt terribly upset. Furthermore, one of his daughters was taken ill. In October of that year he had begun a new career – that of burglary, operating in Greenford, Brentford, New Malden and Hounslow. In all he broke into seven houses in the next two months. Some of the stolen goods were sold to a Hammersmith jeweller. Others were allegedly sold to Key.

  Butler was visited by the police that day and taken to Kingston police station, though he first said, ‘I know nothing about it’. At first he said that on that day he had been knocked down by a motorcyclist on Ham Road, Richmond. The man was about to go on holiday, and did not want to be entangled in any drawn out official procedures. So he gave Butler £15. Butler then went to Kingston Hospital, pretending to be the forementioned Charles Jackson, where he claimed he gave incorrect information at the hospital because he could not afford the medical fees (despite just being allegedly given £15). He said that he was nowhere near Mr Key’s shop and was not even in Surbiton on that day. The police were unconvinced. Several people, including the shopkeepers who had served him on that fatal day, disproved his story about his movements on 24 December, four out of eight picking him out of an identity parade. Furthermore, £1 notes were found on his person. He had pawned the gold watch and chain. The baby’s rattle, bloodstained, was found at his home and the hat found at the scene of the crime was also found to have been his.

  So Butler gave a second version of events. He said, ‘I did not tell you the exact truth. I was there, but I did not enter the shop.’ He alleged that a ‘Detective Reeves’ had employed him on that day to drive a car for them. Apparently his employer had borrowed his light coat and then entered Keys’ shop. The man then returned, wearing a different coat, having the other rolled up. They then drove to a lonely lane in Esher Common. Butler was then forced to wear the coat and was given £10. Inside the garment was a gold watch, which he later pawned. The injuries to his hands were caused by his slipping in the road and clutching bicycle wheels, and he had told this tale to his mother and his mother-in-law, Mrs Cook, both of whom lived in Teddington. There was no one called Detective Reeves and this name appeared on 13 visiting cards found on Butler’s possession. It was discovered that Butler had had these cards printed at J H Broad’s shop in Richmond. The description of the car and its registration led police to believe it was from Cheshire originally, but no such car could be traced, despite nationwide enquiries.

  Then there was a third account given by Butler. At 9.15am on Christmas Eve, he left his home with Patricia, and took her to his mother-in-law’s house at Middle Lane, Teddington. He left her there, saying he needed to collect his wages and then do some shopping. He took a trolley bus to Kingston, alighting at the bridge. He then went to Brighton Road and entered a barber’s there. As it was very busy, he left without having his hair cut. Butler then went to Victoria Road and recalled, ‘Mr Key and I knew each other very well, as we have had several dealings together and directly he saw me he invited me round to the back of his shop as he normally does.’ It was just after 11.

  Kingston Bridge. Author’s collection

  He continued:

  He owed me about £15 to £20, the balance on different things I had sold him. I went to the shop and asked him for the money. He said I could not have it, as he was short of cash. I told him I would not go until I had it. We stated to quarrel and suddenly he turned round to the bench and took up a knife. He raised the knife to strike me. I made to grab his wrist, and caught hold of the blade. We had a terrible struggle. My hands were bleeding … After a little while I managed to get the knife. At that time I think we were both quite mad. Suddenly Mr Key collapsed on the floor. I was striking at him with a knife before he collapsed. I knew Mr Key always kept his money in his trouser pockets, so I felt in them and took out about 10 or 12 notes. I took my overcoat off, which had blood on it, and put his overcoat on … I then went out, pausing to take a little box of rings and a baby’s rattle. I took them to get my money which Key owed me. I did not think he was hurt so badly. I did not know he was dead until the next morning.

  That afternoon, after buying a new bowler hat on Eden Street, Kingston, he went to the railway station and had one Charles Steward drive him to the hospital, as already stated. At 2.30 pm he visited his mother, at King Edward Grove, Teddington, then went to Mrs Cook’s house in Middle Lane (it was here where he met the little girl as noted above). That evening, he tried to pawn a gold watch, but the first shop refused and redirected him elsewhere. He made £6 from it in a shop in Brewer’s Lane, Richmond, then went on to make other purchases. Apart from children’s toys, he also bought a new suit.

  The question as to whether Key was a receiver of stolen goods was investigated. Naturally, his son denied this. However, one Blythe Keats, a burglar, said that in 1931 he had heard from another thief, one Peacock, that Key was a receiver. Yet the police noted, ‘All the property found in the shop of the deceased and all the old gold at his private address was shown to each of the losers without a single item being identi
fied.’ There was an instance on 28 April 1938 when a youth had brought jewellery to sell to Key. Key refused, saying he needed to see a letter from the lad’s father first. On the following day, the boy did so – it was a forged one – and Key then bought it, returning it to the real owner when asked. The police noted, ‘This instance demonstrates the careful manner in which Mr Key conducted his business.’

  Butler also told the police where he had hidden the knife, a bloodstained coat and various items he had stolen. He had taken them to a deserted house in Portsmouth Road, Kingston. The rings there were identified by Jack Key as having belonged to his father. The knife had been sold to Butler on 19 December 1938 at a shop on Paved Court, Richmond and Lawrence Chitty, a shop assistant, recalled the purchaser. The weapon was eight inches long and the four hairs attached to it matched Key’s.

  He pleaded not guilty and on 18 January was committed to trial at the Old Bailey. At the trial, the defence argued that Butler had been provoked by Keys and that the killing had taken place whilst his passions overrode his restraint. He struck only in self defence. This was a case of manslaughter, not murder, therefore. On 16 February, the trial was concluded. The jury discussed the case for fifty minutes before returning their verdict. Although one of the women was in tears, they decided that Butler was guilty. Mr Justice Singleton passed the death sentence on Butler. Superintendent Beck commented, ‘Butler gave evidence on his own behalf but made a poor show, particularly when he said he was not sorry for the deed.’ He also added that the self defence argument ‘was quite unsupportable having regard to the number of wounds found on the deceased’.